Now you can see the grand story arc, and realize how little of it I've actually written so far.

Available here.

I'd stopped work on this for a bit while I played with some new ideas, but now I've gone back to my main story about Luna's redemption and recovery from the Nightmare. Doesn't mean I won't also do more of the new stuff. However, Chapters 5 and maybe 6 should come faster now, as I finalized and introduced Fischfootur, who is definitely in Chapter 5 as well, and will almost certainly get mentioned in later Shadowverse works.

Yay!

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I've heard mixed reactions to this episode so far. They seem to be divided between those who like and those who hate Pinkie's elder sister -- Maud Pie.

This makes sense, because the episode is essentially a study in character. Specifically, in Maud Pie's extremely unusual character, and the reactions that each of the Mane Six has to this extremely unusual character.

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So I've established two ways of counting the years in Equestria. They are easily interconvertible: YOH = ATB+500, due to the convenient half-millennial length of time between the victory over Discord and the Lunar Rebellion, which is useful because most fanfic I've read uses the After the Banishment system. I use the Year of Harmony system, because I think that both Celestia and Luna consider the Banishment a painful episode, and would much rather focus on happier times; what's more,

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My assumption is that the Equestrians date their years from the end of the Age of Discord, which occurred with the defeat of Discord by the Elements of Harmony. This must obviously have taken place (long) after the migration of the Three Tribes and the initial foundation of Equestria as three Tribes of Ponies more or less allied against threats such as the Windigoes, and probably other nations such as the Dragons, Griffons, Minotaurs and Diamond Dogs.

So we have, in sequence:

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This part of the story struck me as essential and yet logically part of Chapter 2 rather than 3, so I have extended Chapter 2 a bit. For those who don't want to bother re-reading any of Chapter 2, here is the addition in full: it is a letter from Twiight to Luna, in response to the one Luna sent in Chapter 1.

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Dear Princess Luna Selena Nyx,

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Because of my story An Epistolary Legal Consultation Between Princesses, I've been devoting some thought to the consideration of Derpy Hooves and specifically her physical (and mental) handicaps. Here are my conclusions on the matter.

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I originally intended this as a quick one-chapter dark humor piece, but it's been so popular and I've received so many requests to carry it to a conclusion that I'm doing so. With the end of Chapter 2 the Humiliation Conga of Charlie Yu will soon be over, and we are seeing some more serious themes beginning involving the nature of the interaction between freedom of choice and compulsion, both on the part of Charlie Yu and

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When I first watched this, I thought that it was pretty mediocre until the last 5-10 minutes. In particular, I considered Applejack's insane over-protectiveness of Apple Bloom to be way OOC, especially AJ's willingness to delay the apple pie shipment to watch over her little sister in a situation in which Apple Bloom was not really in any danger -- remaining behind on the family farm.

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For structural reasons I've cut the Dunnich scene out of the end of Chapter 3 of All the Way Back, where you may have already read it, and am moving it to the front of Chapter 4. This way I end Chapter 3 on an ominous note and put the character development and exposition where it belongs, in the middle of a chapter rather than as part of its climax. This is just generally better technique, as each chapter should ideally start on a hook and end at a mini-climax / denouement where

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